Parents Weekend

Parents Weekend (2025), by Alex Finlay, is a crime thriller about the mysterious disappearance of five college students and the web of secrets that unravels during the ensuing investigation. Finlay published his debut novel, Every Last Fear, in 2021, which he followed with The Night Shift (2022), What Have We Done (2023), and If Something Happens to Me (2024). With Finlay’s signature interest in trauma and grief, Parents Weekend explores family secrets and dysfunction, generational culture divides, and the impacts of technology and social media on privacy, reputations, and justice. The novel became an instant national bestseller and is slated for a Hollywood film adaptation.

This guide references the eBook edition of the text published by St. Martin’s Publishing Group in 2025.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of bullying, child abuse, child illness and death, child sexual abuse, cursing, death, death by suicide, graphic violence, illness and death, mental illness, physical abuse, sexual content, sexual violence and harassment, substance use, and suicidal ideation.

Plot Summary

In a flash forward, five college students run for their lives. They’re chased along the beach and into a sea cave, where they huddle together and wonder if the police will find them alive or dead.

In the dramatic present, the students, Blane, Mark, Libby, Stella, and Felix, are freshmen at Santa Clara University, where they live in the same dorm, Campisi Hall. They became friends after being assigned to a group for a capstone project. Now, it’s parents weekend, and Friday night’s dinner provides an opportunity to catch up with their families, but the students are distracted by a terrible secret about another student, Natasha Belov. She’s missing, and they know something about it.

Blane’s parents are divorced. His mother, Cynthia Roosevelt, is a high-ranking official at the State Department with her own security detail. His father, Hank, isn’t supposed to attend parents weekend, so Blane feels surprised when he runs into him on campus. Libby’s parents, Ken and Amy Akana, are a judge and a former lawyer, respectively, whose marriage has soured since the death of Libby’s younger brother, Timmy. Stella’s parents are David and Nina Maldonado. David’s a charming plastic surgeon with an infidelity problem. Felix’s mother is Alice Goffman, a single mom who works for the dean of the university. Mark is estranged from his father, Andrew Wong, who spent 10 years in prison for molesting teenage girls, so Mark doesn’t have any family attending parents weekend.

Before the parents’ dinner, Natasha’s body is found in the sea cave. Her death is ruled an accidental drowning. Ken and Amy’s tires are slashed on their drive to Santa Clara. David and Nina see Cody Carpenter, the son of David’s former lover, on campus. The parents gather at the restaurant for dinner, but none of the students show up, and none of them answer their parents’ calls or texts.

After dinner, Alice calls Jay McCray, chief of campus police, to report the students missing. Then she finds a small pink hoodie in Felix’s laundry with what appears to be blood stains. David goes for a run on the beach, where a man with a knife accosts him. Running from his assailant, David falls and loses consciousness. Ken and Amy learn that Libby borrowed her roommate’s phone. The Find My Phone app leads them to Rancho San Antonia County Park, an enormous area with miles of hiking trails.

FBI agent Sarah Keller is temporarily living in Santa Clara with her husband, Bob, and their children to care for Boby’s dying father. On Saturday morning, Keller’s new boss assigns her to help campus police find the missing students. She recruits an intern, Annie Hafeez, to assist her. At Alpha Kappa, the fraternity that Blane and Mark are pledging, they learn that Blane borrowed another member’s van the night before. It’s painted like the Mystery Machine from Scooby-Doo.

David is in the hospital for the head wound he sustained when he fell on the beach. He tells Agent Keller about Cody, his former lover’s son. Cody’s father caught them, and his distress led to his death by suicide. Cody witnessed it and has a vendetta against David. He also experiences suicidal ideation himself. Agent Keller finds Cody at the Golden Gate Bridge and risks her life to stop him from jumping.

The students are tied up and locked in the back of the van. Mark’s been shot, but he’s still alive. Stella regrets doing drugs with Natasha at the beach on Tuesday night. It angered her friends, since Natasha had posted on social media calling Mark and Felix creeps. Now, they manage to break out of the van, but their abductors are waiting outside.

Agent Keller struggles to get warrants for crucial geofence data about cell phones present in the park on Friday night, which could indicate who was with the students when they went missing. A helpful FedEx manager gives her access to his trucks’ dash cam videos, which show a Scooby-Doo van leaving the park, driven by a figure in a Smurf mask. Early Sunday morning, authorities find the van torched on the side of the highway.

After seeing video footage of her tires being slashed, Amy admits she had an affair with a man named Bruce Lockwood. She tried to end it, and he’s been stalking her ever since. Hank, who spent Friday night sleeping off a bender in a motel, is cleared of suspicion. Agent Keller and Jay McCray, chief of the campus police, interview Mark’s father, who says Mark asked him about getting a lawyer on Friday afternoon, but he doesn’t know why. Strangers begin posting the parents’ movements and locations online and even harassing them in person. Alice gives Keller the pink hoodie and a file she stole from the dean’s office. It contains printouts of social media posts naming Mark, Felix, and a faculty member, Professor Turlington, as predators. Keller interviews the professor, who describes Natasha as a vindictive student who falsely accused him of harassment after failing his class.

While trapped in a U-Haul truck, the students bond over stories of family dysfunction but admit they still love their parents. Later, their abductors force them into the sea cave. There, the students apologize to each other for the mistakes they’ve made that led to this situation.

The coroner says Natasha had her phone with her, in a waterproof case, when she died. It’s already been returned to her parents. Annie finds a prank video Blane and Mark posted online the previous Tuesday night in which they tricked Stella into thinking she’d killed Natasha on the beach. Bruce finds Amy at the motel and holds her at gunpoint, but Ken intervenes and kills him.

Agent Keller receives geofence data showing that Natasha’s phone was present at the park on Friday night, even though it was previously found with her body. Agent Keller realizes what happened and rushes to the sea cave to rescue the students before high tide. As she and McCray approach, Natasha’s parents shoot McCray and take Keller’s weapon. Felix exits the cave and explains to Mr. and Mrs. Belov that his friends didn’t kill Natasha and he isn’t Natasha’s stalker, as they believe. He tells them he’s figured out who the stalker is and agrees to take Mr. Belov to him. Mrs. Belov keeps the gun on Keller, but Bob tackles her, and the police arrive, arresting Mrs. Belov and rescuing the students still in the cave.

Realizing Professor Turlington is Natasha’s stalker, Agent Keller races to his home with a tactical team. A standoff reveals that the professor killed Natasha and ends in the deaths of Felix, Mr. Belov, and Turlington.

Three years pass, and Blane, Mark, Libby, and Stella are graduating. Cynthia and Hank both attend, having mended their relationship as co-parents for Blane’s sake. After a summer trip to Europe, Mark will work for an AI startup in Silicon Valley, and Blane will enter a graduate program in international politics. Struggling to cope with Felix’s death, Alice quits her job to heal and seek a fresh start. Ken has retired to travel with Amy and rekindle their marriage. Libby tells them she’s decided to work at St. Jude’s after graduation, helping families affected by childhood cancer like theirs was. David and Nina have divorced, which has improved Nina’s relationship with Stella, who’s headed to medical school. Annie got into the FBI training program with support from Agent Keller and McCray, who are in Washington, DC, to watch her graduate.

Blane, Mark, Libby, and Stella gather around a bonfire to pay tribute to Natasha and Felix before heading off to start their new lives.